In the prior art, a plating method for terminals of the printed circuit board is known wherein the portions of the board which need not be plated is covered with a thin synthetic resin film and the peripheral portions are masked with adhesive tapes or resist material, and the board is dipped in the level controlled electroplating bath and charged with electricity for plating. However, this type of method requires preliminary preparations prior to the plating operation which automatically increase the costs in labour and materials. Plating at a high current density is impossible for this dipping method so that it takes a long period of time to obtain the required minimum thickness of the plated deposit. This method is further defective in that the thickness of the plating deposit is often uneven depending on the location of the object to be plated, distance between anodes and cathodes, and on the condition of electrolyte agitation and also in that these conditions are very hard to control.
The present invention was contrived so as to remove these defects by improving the masking means and by jetting the plating solution on the surface of the objects to be plated instead of dipping the object in the bath as in the prior art, thereby securing a plating device which performs the plating operation simply, securely and at a high speed.
The present invention aims at eliminating all the consumable materials such as resists or tapes which are required to protect the portions not requiring plating and at radically decreasing the labor and material costs by conducting the mechanical masking for the non-plated parts simultaneously with the plating operation.
Another object of the present invention is to remarkably reduce the area needed for installation of the plating device and to decrease the unevenness in the plating film at respective plated portions and on two faces by utilizing the constant jetting method.
Further objects of the present invention will become clear from the following explanation and the attached drawings.